Europe at 27, for how long? At a press conference following an informal summit of European leaders in Granada, Emmanuel Macron frankly addressed the subject of enlargement of the Union. “We are convinced that we must move much faster” on this subject, declared the French president, saying he was “very attached to giving us an ambitious and precise objective”. But “for the moment it is too early, no decision has been made,” he added.
“There is an emerging consensus to say that we are facing a real transformation (…) of our geopolitical vision of our Europe,” he continued. “We need to be particularly innovative and several of us have also proposed a method, a new ambition in terms of enlargement,” he said.
The European Commission is due to present its recommendations in the autumn on the opening of accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, which obtained candidate status in June 2022. Five Western Balkan countries are also candidates for membership. membership. The President of the European Council Charles Michel affirmed at the end of August that the EU must be ready to integrate new members “by 2030”.